The First Tournament Begins!

Hear ye and be warned! On the twenty-second and twenty-third days of November, 24 CLE, a tournament shall be held upon that Field of Justice known as Summoner’s Rift, whereby Valoran’s emissary pro tempore to the people of Nyroth shall be appointed. This emissary shall thereupon be duly invested with sufficient powers to hold negotiations and other relations with the Nyrothians on Valoran’s behalf, until such time as the present dispute concerning Nyroth is resolved.

There shall be represented at this tournament the following nations of Valoran, all member-states of the League of Legends in good standing:

the Maritime Republic of BILGEWATER, representing itself and the interests of the Marai
the Serene Isle of IONIA
the SHADOW ISLES
the peoples of the FRELJORD, by a confederation of the AVAROSAN, the WINTER’S CLAW, and the TROLL TRIBES

Let the word of the League be as law, lest all the powers of Runeterra arrange themselves against ye. There may be no appeal.

The Time Has Come

Sharpen your blades, don your armor, and release your magical powers: the time for the first tournament of the Nyroth conflict has finally come. The tournament will be held Saturday and Sunday, November 22 and 23, starting at 11:30 am Pacific time on both days. It will be streamed live on Twitch at twitch.tv/LeagueFactions.

The outcomes of these matches will determine which two factions advance into the finals. This can get a little complicated, so here are the rules.

If two factions have better records than the other two, then (obviously) the two with the better records will advance.

If three factions end up with identical records, we will need to select one of them to advance. The two of them with the highest Balance of Power standing will play one match against each other, with the winner advancing. (The tiebreaker match will either be held on Saturday or on Sunday, by agreement of organizers and teams.)

Whichever factions do not advance will come in third and fourth place, with whichever faction prevailed in their matchup against one another taking third place. (We recognize that this could come off as a little odd if we get some Arrow’s Theorem problems going, e.g. where Pinguland beats Rengarville, but Rengarville beat one of the factions that advanced to the finals. Think of it as the last-place factions scrapping against one another.)

Day Two — Sunday, November 23

The finals will be a best-of-five match, beginning at 11:30 pm Pacific. We will publish a more complete schedule once the finalists have been determined.

Timing Rules

Each party-disputant to this tournament must arrive at the Halls of Battle at the appointed times for each match, there to stamp their sigil or place their signature upon the record book and declare themselves present to fight.

Summoners should be present at the stated match-times. We understand that from time to time people have internet problems, sleep in, or get pushed off a balcony by Katarina just before their match. Teams may, of course, freely substitute Summoners, provided they remain within the confines of the rank classifications and otherwise remain compliant.

We hope this will not be invoked in such a major tournament, but a faction which fails to have its team ready at 10 minutes will forfeit, as usual. It may underfill. It may overfill up to once per tournament-day, as explained in the tournament rules.

Match start times may be delayed by no more than ten minutes from the time the teams are ready for “admin” reasons, such as stream difficulties.

If we end up running behind, e.g. because matches run longer than expected, we will revise the scheduled start times accordingly. If an event is running behind, the rules above apply normally, except that you should replace “scheduled start time” (etc.) with “the revised start time”. The revised start time is 15 minutes after the time at which the Nexus blew up on stream (or, if not streamed, 15 minutes after someone announces the game is over in Factions chat.) So, if the Nexus blows up on stream at 2:30 Pacific, the revised start time is 2:45 Pacific.

Stakes

As a major tournament, the stakes will be high.

First Place

The faction which wins the tournament will be appointed Valoran’s chief emissary pro tempore to the Nyrothians. Given the present situation, this will render the victorious faction a de facto governor of Nyroth, at least until the dispute is concluded, and the ultimate victor determines Nyroth’s final disposition. This power will allow it to steer the course of the remainder of the exploration of Nyroth and make other important decisions on Valoran’s behalf.

The victorious faction’s show of strength in the tournament, coupled with its powerful new role as Valoranian emissary, will allow it to recruit a valuable ally. (Permanently gain an NPC of its choosing, like Merricurry or Therese Buvelle from Hextech Revolution.)

The faction’s agenda-setting power in the League will allow it to move an unlockable Champion up one category, e.g. from Tertiary to Secondary or from Secondary to Core, making them significantly easier to add to the roster.

It will be allowed to freely select any unexplored island to claim as its own.

Second Place

It will also acquire greater overall power through its gains in Nyroth. (Gain a permanent +5 to its choice of Military, Navy, Research, Espionage, Commerce, or Industry. This comes with the right to shake canes at new people in future arcs whenever the faction succeeds on a roll because of this extra +5. “We fought uphill both ways in the snow for that bonus, you lil’ whippersnappers!”)

The surge of energy from the near-victory will invigorate its various endeavors and open new paths to collaboration with others. (Gain 100 Research, 50 Industry, and 10 Commerce.)

It will be allowed to freely select any unexplored island to claim as its own. (Second to the first-place winner’s selection, obviously.)

It will gain 10 points on the Balance of Power.

Third and Fourth Place

Underdogs unite! The third and fourth place factions will be given an island to explore together. It will be up to them whether to work together or stab one another in the back.

The third place faction will get a reroll on its next Champion petition. (Updated after implementation of the new Champion pickup system.)

The sting of defeat will deduct 15 points from their Balance of Power standings.

Rules

Except as otherwise indicated in this post, we will follow standard Tournament Rules. We encourage the community to keep an eye out for any issues that arise, so that we can address them ASAP—despite our best intentions and quite earnest efforts, it is all but inevitable that oversights will occur, and these are much easier to remedy sooner than later.